CEIRR Cross-Network Training Awardee, Jennifer Habel at the <a href="https://www.doherty.edu.au/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Doherty Institute</a> in Melbourne, Australia is coming back to the United States! Jennifer is in her second year of her PhD program and works in the laboratory of <a href="https://www.doherty.edu.au/people/professor-katherine-kedzierska" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Katherine Kedzierska, PhD</a>. The CEIRR training award will support Jennifer in spending 3-weeks training and collaborating with researchers in the laboratory of <a href="https://www.stjude.org/directory/t/paul-thomas.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paul Thomas, PhD</a> at <a href="https://www.stjude.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital</a>.At St. Jude, Jennifer will perform single-cell transcriptomic analyses on antigen-specific T-cells to identify key features of the immune response of pregnant women with respiratory infections. The single-cell transcriptomic analysis will be done using blood samples of maternal blood, cord blood, and placenta collected from a cohort of pregnant women that were either healthy or have infections with SARS-CoV-2, influenza, or other respiratory associated pathogens, “There are so many changes during pregnancy, it will be interesting to identify factors that are specific to infections”.&nbsp;Jennifer has been in Australia since 2015, she is originally from the suburbs of Chicago, IL. After 2 years of lockdown, she is able to travel again, “I am both scared and excited to be traveling again and it will be nice to be back in the States”. Australia had some of the strictest lockdown protocols; Jennifer had to stay within a 5km radius of her house. However, she said that this did not damper her research but instead “I was able to start on COVID-19 research right away”. Congratulations to Jennifer Habel, we hope that you enjoy being back in the States and cannot wait to see the results of this&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ceirr-network.org/centers/cider">CIDER</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ceirr-network.org/centers/sjceirr">SJCEIRR</a> collaboration!&nbsp;During the interview Jennifer was asked some challenging speed questions:&nbsp;Q: If you couldn’t study T-cells, what type of cells would you like to study?A: If I couldn’t study T-cells, I guess it would be Natural killer (NK) cells.Q: What is your favorite mundane lab task?A: I really enjoy counting cells and making buffers, as long as I don’t have to PH them!Q: Aside from the research, what are you most excited about for your Cross-Network training at St. Jude?&nbsp;A: Just to travel, I am excited I can finally go outside of Australia again.&nbsp;Q: After you finish your PhD, what are your career plans?&nbsp;A:&nbsp;I would like to stay in academics or maybe go into industry. Really, I just want to stay at the bench and continue doing experiments.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

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SARS-CoV-2

CIDER trainee Jennifer discusses her Cross-Network training project with SJCEIRR and answers our questions on science and her future plans!

CEIRR Cross-Network Awardee Jennifer Habel

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Chicago</a>, <a href="https://www.scripps.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Scripps Research Institute</a>, and <a href="https://icahn.mssm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai</a> report a new class of broadly neutralizing antibodies targeted against regions near the base of the influenza surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin (HA), which the authors named anchor antibodies in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04356-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nature</a> Scientific Journal. The HA proteins on the surface of influenza virions are broken into two major domains, the HA-head and the HA-stalk. Antibodies that target the HA-head domain are critical components of immune protection against influenza infections, but the lack of conservation within these domains limits their protective capabilities to a narrow selection of influenza viruses. However, vaccines that target highly conserved portions of HA may provide immunity against a more diverse array of influenza viruses. The previously uncharacterized antibody class the authors identify provides a novel target for universal influenza vaccine design.&nbsp;<figure class="image image-style-align-left"><img src="https://ceirr-public-website-static-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/human_antibody_immunoglobulin_cropped_037742d182.jpg"><figcaption>Three-dimensional illustration of a human antibody.</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)</a> estimate that between 9 million and 41 million influenza infections occur annually resulting in 12,000 to 52,000 deaths. Influenza vaccinations are a powerful disease prevention tool, but the high mutation rates and numerous influenza subtypes pose significant challenges. A universal vaccine that targets highly conserved regions of the virus, is effective against a wide range of influenza subtypes, and induces effective immunological memory would lessen the need to administer and update influenza vaccines annually.&nbsp;The authors generated 358 antibodies from the blood of individuals who were either infected with seasonal influenza, vaccinated against seasonal influenza, or part of a phase 1 universal vaccine clinical trial. The researchers found that nearly half of the antibodies tested targeted the conserved HA-stalk, and the majority (~80%) of those antibodies were directed to uncharacterized regions of the HA-stalk. The antibodies that are directed toward the uncharacterized stalk regions are referred to as “anchor-binding” antibodies, and were found to bind both a broad assortment of human H1N1 viruses and an H1N2 swine influenza virus. Additionally, a subset of the antibodies demonstrated neutralization activity toward an H2N2 virus, which suggests anchor-binding antibodies can also target non-H1 influenza viruses. Importantly, the antibodies were represented across many of the volunteers’ samples, which suggests they are common components of the immune antibody repertoire. Furthermore, anchor-binding antibodies were shown to have the ability to neutralize viruses carrying known immune evasion mutations, limiting the ability of viruses to develop into escape variants. The findings from the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04356-8#citeas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Guthmiller et al. (2022)</a> study provides exciting insight on a previously undescribed class of antibodies and offers the next steps to developing universal influenza vaccines.<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04356-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Guthmiller, J.J. et al. Broadly neutralizing antibodies target a hemagglutinin anchor epitope. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04356-8. (2022).</a>

Publication Commentary

Influenza

CRIPT investigators labeled these antibodies, which target the base of the hemagglutinin (HA) protein of influenza, as ‘anchor antibodies’.&nbsp;

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CEIRR Cross-Network Awardee Jennifer Habel

CEIRR Researchers Reveal Novel Antibody Class Important for Future Universal Flu Vaccine Development

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